RUSSIA: COURT RULES EDMOND POPE ACCUSED OF SPYING MUST REMAIN BEHIND BARS PENDING HIS TRIAL DESPITE SUFFERING FROM RARE FORM OF BONE CANCER

Record ID: 647791

  • Title: RUSSIA: COURT RULES EDMOND POPE ACCUSED OF SPYING MUST REMAIN BEHIND BARS PENDING HIS TRIAL DESPITE SUFFERING FROM RARE FORM OF BONE CANCER
  • Date: 19th September 2000
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 19, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SV EDMOND POPE BEHIND BARS IN COURTHOUSE HOLDING PEN (3 SHOTS) 0.19 2. SV (SOUNDBITE) (English) POPE: "Excuse me. The nature of my cancer means that the longer I am here, the greater the danger of a problem. I need proper care and I need someone who is qualified and understands the type of cancer I have been threatened by." 0.37 3. MV POPE'S LAWYER AND POLICEMAN 0.51 4. SV (SOUNDBITE) (English) POPE: "I am innocent. I am innocent." 0.58 5. SLV/SV JUDGE READS OFF (RUSSIAN) VERDICT REJECTING POPE'S APPEAL FOR BAIL (2 SHOTS) 1.26 6. WS COURTROOM 1.31 7. MV POPE WALKED AWAY BY POLICE 1.41 8. SV (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAVEL ASTAKHOV, LAWYER FOR EDMOND POPE: "I think this decision by the police corps office is awful. Until the main trial Mr. Pope cannot be released. I think that the decision depends on a high political level, it depends on (Russian) President Putin. This morning [United States] congressman Peterson has sent a request to Mr. Putin about Mr. Pope's release." 2.17 9. EXT COURTROOM 2.23 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAT13IREKMGP3HGXJ099RWIIQ2
  • Story Text: A Russian court has ruled that Edmond Pope, a U.S.

    citizen accused of spying, must remain behind bars pending his
    trial despite suffering from a rare form of bone cancer.



    The Moscow city court ruled on Tuesday (September
    19) that Pope, a retired US naval intelligence officer, must
    stay in jail awaiting trial because espionage was one of the
    most serious charges on the books. Lawyers say they expect his
    trial to begin next month.

    Speaking to reporters from behind bars in a holding pen in
    the courtroom, Pope repeated that he was innocent and said he
    was not receiving proper medical care.

    "The nature of my cancer means that the longer I am here,
    the greater the danger of a problem," said Pope, who is being
    held in a cramped cell in Moscow's Lefortovo prison.

    Asked how he was feeling, Pope, said that morally he was
    very disappointed by the ruling but that physically his
    condition was not too bad.

    However he said he required proper medical care and
    attention. Pope's supporters say that if his cancer recurs, he
    might show no symptoms until it was already too late to save
    him.

    Pope, 54, is accused by Russia's FSB domestic security
    agency of gathering intelligence about a torpedo. U.S.

    officials say Pope had tried to buy 10-year-old underwater
    propulsion technology which Canada had since bought.

    John Peterson, a U.S. congressman who accompanied Pope's
    wife Cheryl on a recent Moscow visit, told Reuters by
    telephone from Washington that the court's decision was
    inhumane.

    Peterson said he and many fellow-lawmakers would urge US
    President Bill Clinton to review all aid programmes for Russia
    if it continued to deny Pope access to proper medical
    treatment.

    Russia's foreign ministry has already issued a statement
    saying any attempts to link the Pope case to U.S.-Russian
    economic relations "give cause for most serious worry".

    It says Pope, whose cancer is in remission, is receiving
    regular medical inspections and that Russian and U.S. doctors
    have discussed his condition together.

    Pope's lawyer Pavel Astakhov told reporters outside the
    courtroom that he believed his client's fate rested with
    President Vladimir Putin.

    "This morning Congressman Peterson sent a request to
    President Putin (for Pope's release). We expect an answer
    either this week or next," Astakhov said.

    Peterson said he had petitioned Putin several times to
    take up Pope's case. Clinton also raised the issue with Putin
    during their recent meeting in New York. Putin told CNN's
    "Larry King Live" show that the legal process must run its
    course.

    Pope has requested a jury trial but Astakhov said this
    looked unlikely.

    Last month, Pope's wife Cheryl was allowed to visit him in
    jail and said he was sharing a small cell with one sink and
    one toilet with five other detainees.






    American businessman Edmond Pope had been hoping to be allowed
    to walk out of Moscow's rat-infested Lefortovo prison due to
    poor health and await his trail on house arrest in Russia.

    Speaking behind courtroom bars, Pope said that he faces
    a possible cancer and requires medical specialists unavailable
    in prison.

    He also insisted on his innocence.

    But a Moscow court said that the espionage charges against
    Pope were too serious to allow him to be released.

    Russia's intelligence services brought the charges against
    Pope. They arrested him on April 05 of this year, accusing
    him of attempting to purchase secret information on Russian
    military torpedoes.

    Pope's lawyer said that the decision on Pope's trial was
    political and depended upon the intervention of Russian
    President Vladimir Putin.


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